In past years automatic identification systems have been popular in many service industries, purchasing and distribution logistics, manufacturing and material flow systems. Automatic identification procedures have been used to provide information or data about people, animals, goods, and products in transit.
One example of an automatic identification system is a barcode system. Barcode is a binary code comprising a field of bars and gaps arranged in a parallel configuration. The code is arranged according to a predetermined pattern and represents data elements that refer to an associated symbol. The sequence of code is made up of wide and narrow bars and gaps that can be interpreted numerically and alphanumerically. The code is read using an optical laser scanning technique that reads the sequence of code based on the reflection of a laser beams from the black bars and white gaps of the code. The most popular barcode by some margin is the EAN code (European Article Number), which was designed specifically to fulfill the requirements of the grocery industry in 1976. Barcodes are extremely cheap, but have low storage capacity and cannot be reprogrammed.
Another example of an automatic identification system is optical character recognition (OCR). OCR was first used in the 1960's as a special font developed for stylized characters that can be read both in the normal way by people and automatically by machines. The advantage of OCR systems is the high density of information and the possibility of reading data visually in an emergency. However, OCR systems have failed to become universally applicable because of their high price and the need for complicated character readers.
In today's technologically advanced society it would advantageous for automatic identification systems to be compatible with systems from varied fields of technology such as telecommunications. Considering that wireless communication devices are now used in almost every aspect of every day life in the form of PDAs, satellite phones, smart cellular phones, handheld computers, wireless-enabled laptops and Bluetooth devices, it would be useful to be able to utilized data from automatic identification systems to further improve the functionality of today's wireless devices. However, the automatic identification systems noted above may not be suitable candidates for integration with today's wireless devices given their obvious drawbacks.
One possible solution is the use of contactless ID systems called RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) systems. The typical RFID system includes an RFID reader, an RFID transponder and some kind of data processing system to process the data read from the RFID transponder. RFID readers wirelessly communicate with the RIFD transponders through the use of radio frequency (RF) signals. The readers send out an RF signal that “wakes up” the RFID transponder. The transponder then transmits a data signal back to the interrogator via an RF frequency signal. In RFID systems there is no need for physical contact between the RFID transponder and the RFID reader to transfer data. The size of the RFID transponder can be made at present very small and the prices have also gone down thus allowing their widespread use. A more detailed discussion of RFID wireless network principles are described in a publication entitled “Radio Frequency Identification: A Basic Primer,” published by the Automatic Identification Manufacturers (AIM) web site (http://www.aimglobal.org), Oct. 23, 2001 and fully incorporated herein by reference.
As mentioned previously, RFID systems are already used in many sectors of industry, commerce and services where data needs to be collected. The attributes of RFID systems are complementary to other data capture technologies and thus able to satisfy particular application requirements that cannot be adequately accommodated by alternate technologies. At present, the principal areas of application for RFID systems include:
transportation and logistics;
manufacturing and processing;
animal tagging;
waste management;
time and attendance;
postal tracking;
airline baggage reconciliation; and
road toll management.
However, none of the applications of RFID systems noted above include implementation with wireless, personal communication devices. Thus, it is desirable to provide an apparatus, system method and computer program product for implementing RFID data communication with a wireless, personal communication device to improve device functionality. The apparatus, system, method and computer program product of the present invention disclosed herein address this need.